The body of a newborn baby was found by a worker at a rubbish tip in a north Perth suburb yesterday. The remains were examined by a pathologist but police could not initially confirm the infant's age or gender.
Detective Sergeant Terry Rakich said: "We have grave concernsfor the mother in terms of her health. We ask her to come forward, or anybody who has knowledge of the mother."
The disturbing discovery came as the pastor of a Sydney church where a baby was dumped in a cardboard box made a plea for her mother to come forward.
"I'd just love for you to come and have a chat with me. No media, nothing like that," Pastor Matt Beckenham told Macquarie Radio yesterday. "We just want to be able to speak to you and to help you through this time. Our goal at the end of this is to have her reunited with her little baby."
Mr Beckenham found the newborn on the steps of Haberfield Baptist Church on Sunday morning.
"If I could say something to her [the mother] I would say that & God will look after this child .. but he also wants to reach into your heart and help you with the hopelessness and the despair & or whatever it is that you're going through, or whatever has caused this to happen."
The baby is in the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital hospital, where her condition is described as stable. The NSW Department of Community Services has had calls from many people offering to adopt or foster the baby known as Joan.
She is the second newborn to being abandoned in as many months. "Catherine" was found in a cardboard box outside a Victorian hospital on Mother's Day. This mother is also yet to contact authorities.
